September 1, 2008

I'm just coining a word. It means the way everyone went nuts after Sarah Palin made her entrance on the national stage. What are the symptoms of this mental disorder? Help me enumerate them. One certainly is the desire to comment on blogs, so have at it. Another is the obsession with the female body. Yes, let's talk politics -- let's talk about wombs and protruding abdomens and lactating breasts.

221 comments:

If one follows the meme, the whole ugly Palin smear is easy to understand.

It’s well known that Andrew Sullivan has been feigning his own pregnancy. He’s been secretly carrying Barry’s imaginary love child for some time now and he is conflicted. He knows he should carry the baby to term in November, but he’s having second thoughts. Sullivan has correctly sensed that Barry will throw him under the bus because Palin-gate got ugly and stupid. Being nominally pro-life, Sullivan also knows that he can’t have an abortion* at this late stage, so he’s backed off the fake pregnancy meme, mostly to keep on his fantasy lover’s good side.

But notice also that he’s hatched a new topic: birth control and teenage pregnancy. Now he can talk about how he wishes he hadn’t gotten knocked-up so easily, and drive Ann’s blog traffic.

I’d say that explains about 90% of the crap that’s come out of the left this weekend.

*Sullivan will deliver a healthy 8 lb turd out his own “vagina” in November.

One symptom of the left-wing variant of Palinsanity is that it deludes its victim into thinking you were actually seriously considering voting for McCain until he picked Palin. Seems to pop up often in these threads here.

I like her credentials, but one has to be a bit naive to think her appearance was not a deciding factor.

Damn straight it was. So was the fact she was a woman. And? People keep bringing stuff like this up like it's supposed to be scandalous. Well hell it's no worse than picking a guy just because he comes from a state whose electoral votes you need.

Let's be clear about something: a Vice Presidential pick is never made based on who would actually make the best V.P. I'd go so far as to say it's not even the overwhelming factor.

These symptoms seem to afflict the teenage bullies who preside over and post conspricy theories at KOS, MYDD, DU and other irresponsible sites. One of the worst afflicted with the disease is Andrew Sullivan. He is too far gone for any treatment.

On another note:If Markos Moulitsas was not a sniveling bully and coward and if he was any kind of decent human being, he would have issued an immediate apology to the public over the behavior of his nutroot spawn. Then he would have taken down all of the offending material and banned the diarists who wrote it. This would have gained him respect and proven that he has gravitas. He would have been seen as a serious person instead of a teenager in the locker room. This is what people who run things do; they take the heat for others and apologize and correct the problem.. They act like adults. Markos has demonstrated a total lack of decency and is no better than the people who post trash on his site. .

For conservatives like me, it's all about having a real out-side-of-Washington Reaganite on the ballot for the first time since 1988.

That's a long time to wait.

And after eight years of Bush, we're really hungry for someone with a Reaganite capacity to communicate, a Reaganite instinct to win, and a Reaganite toughness in the face of the opposition. You look at what Palin has done in Alaska, and it looks like she's got the goods.

She's even fired people like Reagan, i.e. she's got that "I paid for this microphone" vibe. Big time.

Well, I certainly have an inordinate interest in Sarah Palin. Mostly, it is renewed interest in the calculus of this campaign season, and of conservative interests.

I seek, or at least have for the past couple of days, the "read" of others about this new national candidate. I try to understand the renewal of values in the campaign I thought lost during the primary. I wonder if I can get a Palin poster for the yard; I had been reluctant to put out a McCain one, though I will vote for him. I haven't been particularly enthusiastic about active support.

Insanity? Perhaps, but certainly quickened interest, and not much time to become certain enough to act.

P.S. There is another here posting as “John Lynch:” We are not the same person, just the same name. I haven’t sorted out yet what to do, I’ve posted with this, my real name, for several (>5) years. I’d like to think I have some equity. Maybe go with vbspurs’ “Cheers” signature.

Thinking an open and public vetting process of a candidate after they've been picked spells doom for the other candidate, and the laundry from the public vetting on the candidate can only be good news?

Well, let's see: John McCain picked someone utterly unqualified and unprepared for the second highest position in the land. He made a recklass and indefensible choice that contradicts all of his claims about putting the nation first and caring about national security. So it's McCain's insanity we have to blame, if there is an insanity to be unpacked.

Over at Daily Kos at the hight of the insanity, I saw probably 50+ posts damning her in terms like 'criminally inresponsible' for flying home to Alaska to deliver Trig after she had developed an amniotic fluid leak. Even though she had consulted her doctor about it, and it was OK. They were calling him things like 'criminally negligent'. There was a poster who dubbed it water-break-gate.

But I still think you're making a mistake, Ann, to see this as something new. This isn't any different to how you're attacked, to how Clarence Thomas is attacked, to how Jerry Zucker is attacked. It's the same behavior for the same reasons. the left can't stand someone whose support they feel entitled to leaving the plantation.

Palinsanity also causes a severe superiority complex. Sufferers exhibit the irrational behaviors of mighty modern fighting liberals. They compare their powers to those of mythical comic book heroes. Sufferers tend to believe in conspiracy theories, especially regarding the personal lives of women they do not like. They indulge in puerile fantasy and create stories, charts, and fake news reports to prove lies about their target. They form groups and go to blog sites to post their fabrications in the hope that they will be noticed, loved, adored, and most important, agreed with.

Caution must be taken if one decides to disagree with a Palinsanity sufferer as they then turn into insufferable pricks and become deathly annoying.

People who subsist in a delusional state of unfocused anger and resentment, which probably includes at least half of the Democratic Party, only need the slightest of excuses to spout the usual venom. Today Palin, tomorrow anyone or anything that sustains the delusion and the anger.

Many of the Hard Left pundits and commenters have been Palincoherent in their ravings. We've seen a Palinflux of Palinappropriate smears, rumors, and Palinsults. Much of this is not part of a legitimate Palinterchange of ideas, but rather mob mentality, a Palinteraction of Palinferior Palintellects. Many of them need psychiatric help, I think, where they could be properly Palinterrogated about their underlying Palinsecurities.

Bob said... "Well, let's see: John McCain picked someone utterly unqualified and unprepared for the second highest position in the land."

She's more qualified than the person the Democrats picked for the highest position in the land, jackass. You really want to have this argument? The Democrats really want to start that fight? How fucking stupid are you? Bring it on. If that's the debate, you've already lost.

We like to see people as pure and good but are enthralled/outraged when they get publicly degraded. Or we like degrading people who others see as pure and good. (That covers both sides in the Palin debate.)

Maybe it's because we have filthy secrets of our own we don't want to come out? Ones we haven't really come to terms with.

Simon said..."This isn't any different to how you're attacked, to how Clarence Thomas is attacked, to how Jerry Zucker is attacked. It's the same behavior for the same reasons. the left can't stand someone whose support they feel entitled to leaving the plantation."

You haven't noticed the MSM response to this? On the one hand, the choice of Palin "takes the experience issue off the table" This is quickly followed by additional comments on how inexperienced she is.

She is a remarkable woman, no matter one's politics. She made sure not to shrink McCain in her speech. If she hadn't done the effort, he would have disappeared.

She will be watched closer than anyone else in this campaign, and she looks like the type to handle it.

Obama looks almost commonplace.

It would make anyone who thought this was The Democrat's Year go nuts.

Let me see, who will make people turn on their TV's to watch? Obama or Palin? Or as HH said, Sarah for millions of women? Who would have thought that the VP debates were the ones to look forward to? I hear she's good with a filleting knife.

Oh, no bounce for Dems? Didn't the same thing happen the last time they got 37%?

It's going to get worse. At least Rove did his dirt to win. These folks aren't even smart enough to do that.

Derek (who can't help think of the Lieberman/Ned Lamont race right now)

McCain makes a choice many consider a key sign of his judgment and he chooses:

A charismatic Christian creationist who's been governor for less than 2 years of a state so small she won her election with 115,000 votes. She was a member of a political party that stands for the secession of Alaska, the abolition of all property taxes, and the privatization and exploitation to the hilt of all public lands within the new country. She believes in abstinence-only education, yet her 17 year old daughter is pregnant. She supported the "bridge to nowhere" before she opposed it. She opposed Bush's "surge" before she supported it. She didn't "take on" the corrupt Ted Stevens, as Lindsey Graham claimed, but, rather, led a major fundraising effort for him.

So, Professor, the insanity is a reaction to the judgment shown by a guy who has a good chance of being our next president.

Well I am that guy that just popped in. I have been busy this Labor Day weekend and not really on the net. I drop in now and then in-between time at the pool or the tables or the spa. And it is incredible.

It has brought out the worst in many commenters and the best in others. But the frenzy is unwarranted. It will all play out in the votes of normal Americans who don't get the news on the Internet.

All I ask is that you start a thread about something else every day so civil discourse might return. Without threats of violence and despicable accusations and other assorted bullshit.

Michael said... "Simon ... Gee, that's so pithy and straight from the shoulder."

It comes from years of watching how the left deals with such people in general, and more than two yers of watching how they react to Althouse specifically. As I said in the thread earlier today, the left and their MSM surrogates have spent two days ruding around Palin county looking for some rope and a tree with a perpendicular limb. Watching them pour poison into the well, it's becoming harder and harder to treat these people as fellow countrymen rather than the enemy. What will be left of civilized discourse in America when the left is done trying to tear down Palin?

For me, it was love at first sight. It was seeing someone other than a 'white guy in a suit" up there. And, yes, I consider Obama to be another "white guy in a suit". Come to think of it, even Hillary seems like another "white guy in a suit". It's not about race or gender, it's about presentation. There is just something about politicians that turns me off. Gov. Palin was a breath of fresh air. I cannot describe the feelings as I listened to her speech. I think it is a changing of the guard. Yes, Obama is also of the same generation, but he seems like just another of the old boy politicians already..... I don't know. She's the reason I decided to donate to a campaign for the first time in my life, and the first time I'm not dreading the trip to the "pick the lesser of two evils" voting booth this year. Please, baby cheese, don't let anything screw this up and make her disappear.

"A Video of Todd Palin from 1996...In 1996 Bristol Palin daughter of Sarah Palin (presumptive vice-presidential republican nominee) was attending Iditarod Elementary School in Alaska. The teacher asked the students to ask their parents if they had any unwanted video cameras they could donate (for skits). Bristol Palin brought in a camera. The VHS tape found inside that camera featured her husband Todd Palin talking aloud to five-year old Bristol (she's holding the camera) about wife Sarah Palin regarding her 1996 Wasilla election win. (Her first term as mayor) DON'T MISS THIS! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT THIS MAN SAYS!"

Michael said... I wonder if anybody will attack Obama or Biden or Clinton?

Nope. They are off limits. If they are attacked, apologies are demanded and received. Threats are made to stop your right to expression. Threats are made to cut off media access to them. Phone calls are made to the justice department demanding investigations. God forbid you attack one of their children. The earth will swallow you up. You cannot attack the holy saints of the Democratic party ever. It is not allowed.

It has to be that with the selection of Palin, Democrats for the first time looked into the future and saw themselves losing in November. That is what set everyone off. Democrats know and love to play identity politics. The experience thing is just a cover up. With Palin they see Ohio and Pennsylvania slipping through their fingers.

derek kite asks: "Let me see, who will make people turn on their TV's to watch? Obama or Palin?"

I also think people will follow Palin closely, but this is a rather bizarre statement to make, considering Obama just had 38,000,000 people tune in and another 80,000 plus listen to his speech in person.

I'm curious how many people here actually clicked on enigmatic core's link and listened to Palin's welcome to the AIP convention. Democrats are sending this out to DISCREDIT her? They are insane! "If this be treason ..." LOL!

what about the secession of Alaska -- Country First, eh? What about the privatization and exploitation of all public lands so that they can be exploited entirely for private gain?

Listen, anyone who is for the abolition of any tax, including the income tax gets my vote. This Middle Class Guy worked too hard for too many years and gave too much money to the government for their financing of failures. I saw first hand where that money went. It was all a big altruistic waste.

As to the rest, it is all bovine excrement. The transcripts of her speeches disproved it. You are a day late. You better stay away from KOS, MYDD, and DU.

Frankly, i was distressed when I first heard the news about Palin's daughter. The whole thing makes Palin and Mccain look like dopes. However, I realize that my background (like most bloggers) is much more similar to Obama's than Palin's or McCain's. I have a post graduate education, I read a lot of intellectual stuff and I think I know a lot about the world.

But, I admit to knowing less about small town America.

How then will the baby news play out in small town America, the voters Obama needs to win. Will people view Palin as a small town hick from a mobile home with disdain, or will they see her as the only one in the race who is like them (in the same way they saw Bill clinton).

Barack Obama won the Democrat primary almost soley through the force of identity poitics (he got 95% of the largest democratic constituency - black voters. Now he could lose from identity politics.

it isn't just her welcome message as governor to the AIP - in which she does say their message is hers -- it's that the AIP itself says she was a member. are you telling me she wasn't? that it's a slander?

how about the rest? all lies? and if it's all true, which it seems to me, and it's all fine (charismatic christian fundamentalist creationist who advocates abstinence-only education despite the apparent failure of her message to get through to her own daughter, former member of a radically anti-federal government party, political opportunist), then all i can say is we respectfully disagree, i hope that all is on the table for the election, and all of us, americans all, will see who wins, okay?

Ha ha. Simon has been foaming over Palin for months. Palin could confess to smuggling heroin into Alaskan public schools and he would vehemently justify it by saying that she was doing it to lower property taxes or because the heroin was going to be used to fuel oil rigs in ANWR.

Randy said... "I'm curious how many people here actually clicked on enigmatic core's link and listened to Palin's welcome to the AIP convention. Democrats are sending this out to DISCREDIT her? They are insane! "If this be treason ..." LOL!"

Maybe we should listen to them. No one knows more about treason than today's left.

That's precisely the effort here: to prevent Palin's nomination and her speech to the convention. These idiots have a limited amount of time to destroy her and were completely unprepared for her selection. If they fail, they're screwed because they will have set the bar so low that as long as she doesn't appear drunk on stage or prove incapable of stringing two coherent sentences together, she's America's Sweetheart our whatever People decides to call her.

However, I realize that my background (like most bloggers) is much more similar to Obama's than Palin's or McCain's. I have a post graduate education, I read a lot of intellectual stuff and I think I know a lot about the world.

Your point of view seems a bit elitist. I've also a post graduate education, have lived in NYC, Paris, and Frankfurt, but choose to live in Ohio, I guess small-town America, if I read your comment correctly, a place somehow differentiated from post-grad, worldly views.

I don't buy it. While I've no doubt there are small thinkers in small towns, I'm sure there are small thinkers in urban settings. I've little doubt the liberal enclave of Yellow Springs, home to Antioch college, has more post-grads per square mile than NYC.

I think maybe a better stratification is those with a sense of values independent of political expediency, and those either populist or "right-minded" about utopian futures. Education may or may not reinforce those values, as might having lived in differing cultures. That speaks more to the values than it does to the accommodations made in the acquisition of education or cultural awareness.

Anyway, your comment seems a bit close to the "bitter, gun-clinging, bible-thumping" disparagements not likely to win hearts and minds.

EnigmaticCore: no problem -- i'll see you in November. i didn't mention the stupid "video" by her husband or trig's parentage. what exactly of what i mentioned is wrong, and what is it that's just okay with you?

and, btw, John Lynch, those post-docs in Yellow Springs (along with everyone else in Yellow Springs)might know as much as anyone what the last eight years have brought -- I live in Ohio too, and I was in Yellow Springs this summer, and Antioch is dead. literally. it's shut down and abandoned.

Thanks, Invisible Man. When I was cataloging the desperate, failed smears thrown out so far, I forgot that one.

The PAC that was set up not to benefit Stevens, but to benefit Alaskan women Republicans. That Palin was on the board of, but did not run (as you claimed). And the PAC that didn't actually raise any money, and as such didn't actually influence anything.

Yes, by all means, let's cast the bright light on it! And while doing so, everyone can wonder why you can't make a charge without being deceptive, and why you can't seem to want to debate Palin on the issues.

Peter, IIRC the Hilzoy statement was posted on an earlier thread, but thanks for the reminder. I think InstaPundit linked to it earlier today, too, which was good to see. A lot of the responses Hilzoy got were pretty nasty, unfortunately.

Jake Tapper asks: "What would the response be if Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, and his wife Michelle had a pregnant unmarried teenage daughter?"

I can answer that. Mona Charen, Ann Coulter, and Michelle Malkin would sprout bat wings and fangs and start divebombing, Peggy Noonan would issue a pained sigh that would ruffle nun's robes from here to Hoboken, Laura Ingraham and Bill Bennett would engage in a finger-wagging contest to condemn our loose licentious liberal culture, and Jennifer Rubin at Commentary's Contentions would crash into the wall doing cartwheels.

Althouse is NOT wrong. This insanity is something altogether new. It cannot compare to Clarence Thomas (although I'm sure somehow they'll drag up the equivalent of an Anita Hill for Palin before this is over. After all, she once wore a tee shirt that joked about her boobs.)

You must consider that Palin has been on the national stage for not even 100 hours yet, and the level of vitriol being directed toward her - almost from the first quarter hour of her introduction - is unbelieavble and unprecedented. They hated her before they knew her. They began creating rumors based on either nothing or prompting from the Obama camp, immediately.

Since the press knew about Bristol's pregnancy, I think they told Obama's people (maybe not him, himself, but his people) and they passed it on to the Kos people, who screwed it up - probably because they were doing bongs when they took the call. Otherwise it's too much of a coincidence that rumors about Bristol started right away.

I am ashamed of Sullivan, who I used to like, and completely GROSSED OUT by the left.

Obama was a day late with his remarks today. He may need to say them again. Because these people are nuts and they're going to RUIN him.

I just picked up this book called "Orcs" which is pretty interesting and fun reading for the pool. It's a guy imagining what the orcs were thinking, you know with them as the heroes. History or rather fantasy from the other side of the equation.

Peter: It's too bad you couldn't wrangle seats for you and the kids to see the convention on Wednesday or Thursday nights. My nephew got to see the NYC 2004 convention when he was 10. He was thrilled to meet Schwarzenegger. Some protesters snuck into some kids event and created a disturbance. It wasn't pretty. Oh well, gone are the days...

Yep. Antioch, not Antioch McGregor, or Pepperdine, all part of the same system, is dead. It has been dying for twenty years. It's Bush's fault, even though its incoming student population was less than its tenured professor population for most of the last twenty years.

Everywhere else, college population is growing. What's your point: "What the last eight years have brought"? You mean reality should have been suspended during the Bush years, or just your reasoning?

Zachary Paul Sire said... Anyone want to place a friendly wager that she won't make it to Wednesday night?

You already lost the bet. McCain's people knew everything there was to know about Palin and they are ready for any false dirt that comes out. If you read the real news instead of the conspiracy theories you would know this.

Also, it would be political suicide for McCain to dump her unless she is hiding some criminal activity. So far, she is just a normal politician wrestling with the same family problems many people in this country have. People can identify more with her than Hillary; who was about as elitist as they come.

The Christianist wing of the GOP has always hated McCain. They even went along with the Bush campaign's horrendously immoral and racist smears of McCain in 2000. Now they're all voting for McCain because McCain was pressured to pick Sarah Palin, someone even McCain knew barely anything about when he chose her. Maybe these Christianists don't care if she knows anything about foreign policy. She's a family values Christian who didn't abort her down syndrome baby. What's more? She looks hot with a gun. They're probably figuring they can't win in the GOP primaries let alone a general election, but by forcing McCain to have a Christianist VP they can get the White House if he kicks the bucket.

I ask you this. When Althouse first posted about Palin, most of the commenters here knew absolutely nothing about her, but instantly fell in love with her on the basis of her passing a couple pro-life litmus tests and some sexy photos of her wielding guns. Do you believe them now when they try and claim they have been following Palin for many years and are absolutely sure she's both MORE qualified than Obama and ABSOLUTELY qualified to be Commander in Chief and Leader of the Free World? Bullshit.

Actually, I'll show mine. They are pretty simple and straight-forward.

When she ran for office, she ran as a Republican, not on the AIP ticket.

When elected, she did not try to get Alaska to secede from the union.

Although, maybe she just hasn't snuck that one through yet.

But if you guys spam every message board with your beliefs that this is who she is, I am certain that people will give it the consideration it deserves and react in the proper manner, so by all means continue.

I always kinda like McCain, but I'm afraid he's losing my respect when it appears he pulled a running mate out of his ass without even looking much into her. Just to please the social conservarive wing of the GOP.

You must consider that Palin has been on the national stage for not even 100 hours yet, and the level of vitriol being directed toward her - almost from the first quarter hour of her introduction - is unbelieavble and unprecedented.

It is way more than Hillary Clinton ever had to endure in her whole public life.

sloan: When Palin was asked about the surge she said she wasn't paying any attention to Iraq policy but she hoped there was a clear exit strategy and that the troops would be treated well and have adequate equipment. Paraphrasing.

It is rather disturbing to see the darkness that consumes the souls of so many on full display. What drives these disturbed souls and spawns such madness that would lead anyone to heap such scorn on a 17 year old who is pregnant? Since when is that some kind of sin beyond redemption for her family? And, to rationalize this attack as tangentially related to her mother's policies is disingenuous. You can debate the mother's policies without using the daughter as an object.

I have to admit that the sheer viciousness and venom of the attacks has made me uncomfortable. While I have some concerns about Sarah Palin's readiness, I cannot help but support her because of the intensity of the hatred to which she and her family are being subjected by the lunatics.

LOL, Trooper! My mom played bridge this afternoon. This is the age group that is supposed to be shocked by teen-age pregnancy, and mother with newborn running for office. They're an apolitical bunch and the conversation stayed apolitical but they were all definitely not amused by this. Outrageous invasion of privacy sums up their opinions. There were no dissenters.

Jake Tapper asks: "What would the response be if Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, and his wife Michelle had a pregnant unmarried teenage daughter?"

I can answer that. Mona Charen, Ann Coulter, and Michelle Malkin would sprout bat wings and fangs and start divebombing, Peggy Noonan would issue a pained sigh that would ruffle nun's robes from here to Hoboken, Laura Ingraham and Bill Bennett would engage in a finger-wagging contest to condemn our loose licentious liberal culture, and Jennifer Rubin at Commentary's Contentions would crash into the wall doing cartwheels.

And if any White Republicans had then referred to her as "ghetto trash" or "black garbage" you and everyone else would call them RACIST.

But it's PC and wonderful to call the Palin's and their daughter "trailer trash" and "White trash".

And that's the kind of smugly liberal double standard that will contribute to the election of McCain/Palin.

If Obama can smear Palin's daughter, imagine what he will do to your daughter.

He or they would have to get through me first. It would not be pretty. If Obama was a real man and a real father of daughters he would have stopped this in its tracks. He is always a day late and a dollar short. One more reason not to vote for him.

Anyway, your comment seems a bit close to the "bitter, gun-clinging, bible-thumping" disparagements not likely to win hearts and minds.

You don't get my point. I am admitting that I don't know enough to know about small town America to come to conclusions like small town America is bitter about guns and religion. Maybe I should hold some town hall meetings.

You need to close down the kid thread... 656 comments last time I scrolled by, it's scary.

The strange thing is that both sides have gone COMPLETELY NUTS over this woman. ON THE LAST WEEKEND OF SUMMER.

Stupid, ludicrously nuts. Screw the BBQ, the beach is lame, forget the family. SOMEONE ON THE INTERNET IS WRONG.

I'm on deadline, so I had to sacrifice the weekend anyway, but everyone on the internet is freaking out. Vortex posts here get maybe 100 or 200 comments. Very rare thing - need a bloggingheads or some fight with Jessica Valenti. Yet we're seeing hundreds upon hundreds of comments on every Palin thread. Meanwhile the rest get ten, twenty.

Every flipping post is getting an insane number of comments. On EVERY site on the internet. Proteinwisdom has a Palin thred with more than 600 comments. Hot Air has 13 Palin threads posted today with more than 3000 comments - average of 237 comments, mostly thanks to one thread hitting 968 and another 547. Volokh.com has Palin threads with more than 160 comments, while the usual flame fests of a David Bernstein post on anti-semitism/anti-zionism (this one especially juicy since it's on a Jewish anti-zionist) got 16 (i.e. ten plus six). TalkLeft has hundreds of comments on nearly every Palin thread.

PatM: Since the press knew about Bristol's pregnancy, I think they told Obama's people (maybe not him, himself, but his people) and they passed it on to the Kos people, who screwed it up - probably because they were doing bongs when they took the call. Otherwise it's too much of a coincidence that rumors about Bristol started right away.

This is a family crisis, not a scandal....Joe Biden's son was hired as a hedge fund manager. He had no experience and his salary was absurdly high. The fund has ties to the Rev. Moon....Bristol has perhaps not lived up to fundamentalist teachings about sex. Has Joe Biden's son lived up to Obama's teachings about lofty public service....I think we will read much more about Bristol's baby than the Rev Moon's hedge fund.....Edwards, Chelsea, and Biden's son are all involved in hedge funds.

Well Sloan, you do know enough to know about Obama's public statement on the matter earlier today. There is no equivocation in that statement. If you want to call him a liar, then call him a liar. Otherwise stop saying Obama and Obama's campaign are doing these things until you have proof. It's over-the-top supporters of Obama, like Andrew Sullivan, not Obama or his campaign.

Hey. I'm a Democrat and think the so called progressive blogs have hit the jackpot displaying their ignorance and some kind of new pathology this election cycle. Most leading the charge are blog owners.

If there ever was a case and evidence for the against net neutrality position, this is it.

Hey. I'm a Democrat and think the so called progressive blogs have hit the jackpot displaying their ignorance and some kind of new pathology this election cycle. Most leading the charge are blog owners.

If there ever was a case and evidence for the against net neutrality position, this is it.

we know the netroots are guilty, but you put an "and" in there, which means that you squarely accuse Obama of the attack.

The netroots are part of Obama's machine. They have been from the start.

I never accused Obama of attacking Palin's daughter. I only point out that the attacks and the attempted take-down of Palin's daughter could become a metaphor for Obama's policy positions and how they will take down small-town America.

sloan @ 11:13The attack on Palin's daughter by Obama and his netroot allies is becoming a symbol for the attack of Obama's policies on America's daughters in general.sloan @ 11:36 I never accused Obama of attacking Palin's daughter.

If you did your graduate degree in English or logic, I hope you have applied for a refund.

Obama waited over twenty four hours before coming out against it. Just like he waited twenty four hours to congratulate Palin after his campaign issued a vicious negative attack on her when the announcement was made.

LoafingOaf said... Obama did the opposite of smearing Palin's daughter. Anyone who says otherwise is just lying.

Really? He did nothing, zip, zero, nada, to stop it. He and he alone could have nipped this in the bud. He could have called Markos and all the others and told them to stop. When the very first report gained legs, he could have stepped in. He did not do it. Yeah, he smeared her. It is his campaign and he is responsible for it.

Sloan, you really want to dismiss the 2000 smears against McCain as a mere trifle? Or does the fact that it was intra-party mean that it was okay? Or is it that it reflects badly on the Great Leader, so we must sweep it under the rug?

I mean...what do ya expect? McCain only met her like once or twice. Hardly vetted at all. You can't just grab the beauty queen of the religious right and throw her up into the Vice Presidency when you don't know jack squat about her.

Most of the over-the-top stuff came through Kos, Sullivan, some CNN anchor, a couple of the feminist blogs and was mostly ignored or missed the deadlines of the MSM. The weird left, and hard-core supporters of Obama were largely the sources. A good catalog of the attacks and the sources of those attacks, as well as an excellent display of political expediency over principle, can be found here: http://proteinwisdom.com/?p=13191#comments

but i'd like to see some integrity from some of these right wingers in this thread. They clearly lied in this thread, claiming Obama smeared Palin's daughter. He did no such thing. He did the opposite! Obama didn't even mention that Palin ought to rexamine her views on sex ed given that her daughter got knocked up and is now being subjected to a shotgun wedding. Obama didn't go there. People should stop lying.

Sloan continues to deny he wrote what he wrote (I think - I quit reading him) but I haven't noticed any other saying Obama himself is doing this stuff. If so, they are as dumb as he is. But most people here aren't so stupid. You on the other hand are and have been consistently dishonest in your comments and your motivations. Seems like the pot calling the kettle black, in which case, you deserve each other.

Calm down loafing, only one poster stated or implied that Obama made such attacks. Most agree he did not and that supporters did.

Obama has been quite gracious about Palin and is clearly trying to get his campaign and supporters focused on what matters. The question is whether he can.

Palin ought to rexamine (sic) her views on sex ed given that her daughter got knocked up

If you think varying sex-ed will change teenage pregnancy rates by any significant percentage, you are a wide eyed fool. Sex-ed in any form is as effective as DARE and other idiotic government prevention programs. What will change unwed pregnancy is societal disapproval, which is what ultimately reduced smoking rates. I don't see that happening, so welcome to the new reality.

and is now being subjected to a shotgun wedding

She's being subjected to no such thing. Besides the fact that you have your metaphor backward--it is the guy who is subjected to a shotgun wedding--she and her boyfriend and making the choice to get married.

It was quite clearly started in this thread at Daily Kos by Kosites squinting at Palin pictures. Which has convienently disappeared, along with its 2000 comments. At no stage was Alaskan radio ever mentioned.

Zach, maybe we can use Sloan and Peter Bella as evidence that the right has lost its moral compass and is scared of Obama.

There's ample evidence that there are any number of nitwits from the right and left here on any given day, and some of them only act like nitwits every other day. If everyone who posts has to swear an oath to condemn what happened in South Carolina eight years ago or what happened over the past weekend, along with a long list of mutually agreed reprehensible commenters on this site (separate lists for perceived Democrats and perceived Republicans, of course), there is no point to being here.

You are under the strange illusion that the choice of vice-president has a long term impact. It never has. McCain is the one running for president, wringing your hands about this gets you nowhere. Take a hint from Obama and move on.

(Biden has a boat load of baggage. Republicans have so far wisely simply ignored the man. HE.DOESN'T.MATTER.)

It was quite clearly started in this thread at Daily Kos by Kosites squinting at Palin pictures. Which has convienently disappeared, along with its 2000 comments. At no stage was Alaskan radio ever mentioned.

The airbrushing from the kosites continues in earnest.

LOL! Leftists are quite experienced at airbrushing and historical revisionism. Sounds like Moulitsas got pressure to lay off from the Democratic Party. Responding like this is typical of his kind, but there are probably a few thousand people who saved the page, and the comments, before it went offline.

Love how you cite kos as saying the source was somewhere other than his stew of diarists, who picked something up, expanded it to something they chose to "flog" - their words, and think that's a reliable source.

At the end of the day, she sinks or she floats; and that's probably not an O! supporter's choice, but would be, could be, and already are McCain supporters.

Then, it’s up to the general. I think it an inspired, if not yet completely digested choice.

As this thread and many like it demonstrate, it has the buzz going, and certainly livened the debate. It is exposing some ugly sides of the weird left, and opening some dialog on sections of the right. The middle is where this thing will end up being decided, and I don't know that you are speaking for the middle. It appears not.

Those rumors were being circulated in Alaska by Republicans -- including, rumors say, the Republican state senate leader who is a vicious political (and personal?) enemy of Palin's. They were making the rounds on wingnut radio, and on wingnut forums. That's definitely where I first heard them months ago.

As for Bristol's current pregnancy, definitely rumored for some time now (again, mostly in Alaska wingnut radio), apparently few in the McCain camp knew about that....

Well, one thing was kinda funny over the weekend. Some of you tried to say that some of those people were completely erroneous when they claimed they could tell Palin's daughter was pregnant by some of the pics. I guess they were right about that!

Zach, maybe we can use Sloan and Peter Bella as evidence that the right has lost its moral compass and is scared of Obama.

I am scared of Obama.

I am scared that when Obama raises taxes and uses the taxes to transfer wealth to the middle class and poor he will drastically reduce capital creation, crushing long term economic growth and therefore reducing the standard of living for all Americans.

I am scared that Obama will never do anything about drilling for more oil and gas permantly keeping prices high.

I am scared that Obama will never lower the corporate tax rate (which is now the 2nd highest in the world), thus sending more and more jobs overseas, thus ending a century of continued prosperity.

I am scared that Obama's perceived weakness on foreign policy will encourage more bad guys to do more bad things, thus greatly increasing the chances of more wars in the future and America being a lot poorer than it is today.

I am scared that Obama's antipathy towards free trade will result in higher prices at home, recuding our standard of living.

I am afraid that Obama will allow Fannie and Freddie Mac to stay in business, setting us up for the next housing crisis.

Yes, you are right I am afraid of Obama. His election would be a very bad thing for our country and its future.

You are under the strange illusion that the choice of vice-president has a long term impact. It never has. McCain is the one running for president, wringing your hands about this gets you nowhere. Take a hint from Obama and move on.

I'll move on when I feel like moving on. A Vice President becomes President at any moment. McCain VOWED he would pick someone ready to take over in a heartbeat. Maybe Palin's the woman for the job. Doesn't look like it, but she has till November to make her case. I ain't voting for her because she didn't abort a down syndrome baby and looks hot with a gun. Now, look, her speech the other day revealed she may be a very talented politician, so maybe she will make her case. I just think it's looking like she's not ready for the VP and it's amazing that McCain would pick a running mate almost on a complete whim. That's pretty reckless.

ZPS: You might do well to remember Healy's First Law of Holes: When you find yourself in one, quit digging.

Surely you are not so clueless as to really believe that John McCain is stupid enough to pick this woman on the spur of the moment, risking his entire campaign upon her selection, without doing any due diligence. You seem like a nice guy. Shame to see you surrender to Palinsanity.

I just think it's looking like she's not ready for the VP and it's amazing that McCain would pick a running mate almost on a complete whim. That's pretty reckless.

Whatever, I just don't believe that Obama is ready to be President. Just four years ago, Obama was a state Senator with no accomplishments. Prior to that, he was a part time law professor who never wrote an article or published a scholarly article. He has no executive experience other than chairing a foundation board run by Bill Ayres.. Obama has never made an executive decision, he has never run an an entity other than his current campaign.

Now I would agree that a person with no governmental experience could be president if they have a strong political philosophy and guiding set of principles.

However, Obama has no apparent guiding set of principles other than a theme of change. His positions seem to change on a dime from one position to the other depending on which way the wind is blowing.

We can quibble over who has more experience or who is more qualified, the one thing we can agree on is that Obama is running for President and Palin is running for Vice President.

For anyone who is paying attention, today the U.S. Military handed over control of Anbar Province to the Iraq Government.

Back in late 2006, the lefites on this board cited in great pleasure the idea that Anbar was lost (via Thomas Ricks), the war was lost, and that Obama and others were heros for wanting to pull out in defeat.

I know we are all just peons in the great world, but my fellow compatriots on this board who defended the military and defended the surge and fought against the netroots who wanted to end the war in defeat, and spread lie after lie about the war can take some comfort in that perhaps our voices helped in some small part. We need to keep fighting to keep those with bad judgment like Obama from obtaining power and wrecking everything that we and the world have gained.

Man! You people are all going around and around the wrong mulberry bush. I wrote this yesterday, but you really should pay attention.

Here's the real deal:

Palin's a Witch. Not like New Agey Wiccan Womyn. (although she sometimes wears clogs like one) Nope. A real, Satan-worshiping, pentacle-dancing, Lilith-covenanting Witch.

Has anybody seen her actually run 10 miles? I bet she just sets off, and, presto! shows up at the end of the course just like that. I've read there's a picture of her really flying on her broom. Somebody link that one up!

How could she do all the rest of the stuff she's supposed to have accomplished? With 4, now 5 children??

Witchcraft, I say!

And "Trig" (a Pagan name if I ever saw one) really isn't the daughter's baby by the brother-in-law trooper. Nope. That baby is the spawn of Satan!Witch Palin wasn't worried about flying back to Alaska with broken water. That baby can't be harmed, because he isn't human!

All this Christian happy-family crap is a smoke screen to cover up a serious coven of witches. Her daughter missing most of the school year with "mononucleosis?" Nonsense! She was preparing for the initiation rites! And now it turns out "Bristol" is pregnant! And by a Familiar Spirit, none other than the Ghost of the Freemason Eliphas Levi. Another spawn of Satan! When will this end??

I think if McCain is finally going to look into all this, he got to have an expert in spectral evidence to do it. McCain's "vetting" process was a joke! He's got to properly examine the Invisible World to do the job. Otherwise, it's all going to be a whitewash.

I think this pick has shown the danger of picking someone unknown at all, especially without even floating trial balloons, etc. Basically everything there is to know about that person, and everything they've ever said and done, any questionable associations they've ever had, any "skeletons" -- no matter how minor -- all come out at once, or close to it. While this can make a nice story or narrative about the good side of the individual, it makes 50 stories about everything "questionable," and then the abundance of stories itself becomes a story, and maybe even *the* story. When someone is in the public spotlight for a longer period of time, all this stuff comes out little by little, is analyzed to death, and either no one cares or they lose interest.

Not one of the stories or "scandals" or controversies that have come out about Palin so far -- trooper-gate, baby-gate, husband's DUI-gate, buchanan-gate secession-gate, she-once-changed-her-mind-about-something-gate, she-was-once-a-mayor-and-tried-to-get-money-for-her-town-gate -- has really had any teeth, imo. In fact, all of this baggage combined seems probably minor relative to almost any pol, including all 3 of those already in this race. But having all of this "reporting" and speculation at once does create a circus-like atmosphere that makes her appear less serious and accomplished to the casual observer -- i.e., the people who ultimately will decide this election.

Hopefully this will all burn out early enough for her to make a better impression. Originally I was thinking her acceptance speech would be her chance, but with the pot still boiling and the convention so incognito, it may all end up riding on the Vice-Presidential debate.

Oh, I agree, Peter! My comment wasn't so much personal criticism as general sarcasm at what I saw as a trend: repeated calls for this rational person or that rational person from either side of the various disagreements (and a few stuck in the middle) to denounce this or that person or action before they could proceed. It just struck me as getting out of hand and I had this vision of a voluminous agreement that everyone would have to initial and then sign and have notarized before posting. On review, I could have expressed it better and used a few smileys along the way.

Wow. I take the weekend away from the internet and come by to see all these posts.

I was telling my girlfriend all weekend how sad I feel about Obama supporters. Every time we saw a car go by I said how sad I felt for them.

It's like they were the cool kids in high school, but then everyone graduated and moved on to adulthood, but they're still trying to prove how cool their old camaro and long, feathered wavy hair is.

All the Palin frustration, in all these massive amounts of comments, is simply amazing. Speaks for itself. Such passion, such astounding passion, would be a sight to behold if it wasn't really so, so sad.